Solar-powered Chinese car travels 93 miles per 30-hour charge

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China’s 001 Group, based in Zhejiang province, has produced a solar-powered car that costs some $5,500—more than reasonable for any car, let alone one that’s partially fueld by our own local star.

The company has actually made more than 10 of them, which shows the difficulty (or expense) of producing them; if they were cheap to make, why wouldn’t they be rolling off the conveyor belts?

The car can travel approximately 93 miles per 30 hours of solar charging.

A caveat: while the car can absorb 95 percent of of the solar energy radiated onto it, it can only convert 14 to 17 percent of that into actual, usable. So, you’re looking at something like 83 percent of the sun’s energy being wasted. Baby steps, I suppose.